Mike Spencer, of Child Poverty Action Group, also gave a presentation, reflecting on recent test cases in Britain on social security law.

Law Centre (NI) employment legal adviser Caroline Maguire explained about working to extend legal protections for people in situations of forced labour.

Les Allamby, Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission Chief Commissioner, Kathryn Stevenson of the Children’s Law Centre, Anne McKernan of Equality Commission Northern Ireland and Chris McGrath of Housing Rights Service joined in a follow-up roundtable discussion where voluntary sector workers exchanged their experiences of working to advance social justice through strategic test cases.

Gilbert Marcus and Nick Ferreira

Gilbert Marcus SC is a senior advocate at the Johannesburg Bar and specialises in human rights and constitutional law. He represented clients in some of the country’s seminal political trials under apartheid, as well as in path-breaking Constitutional Court cases. He is an honorary Professor of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Nick Ferreira is an advocate at the Johannesburg Bar and specialises in human rights and constitutional law. He has Master’s and doctoral degrees in philosophy from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. On returning to South Africa, he clerked for Justice Edwin Cameron at the Constitutional Court.